Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sprint Corp., the third-largest
U.S. wireless carrier, followed its competitors in making it
easier for customers to upgrade to a new phone more often.

A new service called Sprint One Up lets customers get a
fresh smartphone every 12 months, the company said today in a
statement. The plan, combined with unlimited voice, text and
Internet access, starts at $65 a month.

Sprint joins larger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless,
which embraced similar policies in July. The movement was
started in the U.S. by T-Mobile US Inc., the fourth-largest
carrier, which broke from the industry’s tradition of locking
customers into a phone for two years. T-Mobile’s offering,
called Jump, lets users upgrade their phones twice a year for a
$10 monthly fee.

Sprint, which doesn’t separate out the cost of the upgrade
program from its monthly service charges, said its program was
the best value in the industry.

“Unlike other carriers, Sprint guarantees the unlimited
talk, text and data for life,” Dan Hesse, chief executive
officer of the Overland Park, Kansas-based company, said in
today’s statement. “No other plan can compare.”

Sprint unveiled the program on the same day Apple Inc.
released new iPhones, an event that typically triggers a wave of
upgrades among smartphone users. As many as 6 million of the new
models could be sold in their debut, estimates Gene Munster, an
analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos.